Community theatre at center of sexual misconduct allegations, set to close

Last week, a community theatre in Baton Rouge, LA was rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct by one of its board members. This week, it was announced that it was shutting down permanently.

Theatre Baton Rouge announced on its Facebook page that they were shutting down operations due to financial hardship.

“Due to our current financial situation, Theatre Baton Rouge can no longer produce shows and offering educational programming at this time,” the statement read.

Last week, a former designer with the theatre accused one of its board members of sexual misconduct. William Dellinger claimed that Kristy Coast touched him in a sexual and inappropriate way during a performance at the Louisiana local theatre. He also claimed that the theatre’s President and Vice President retaliated against individuals who reported the incident and attempted to cover up the incident by withholding information from the theatre’s full board of governors.

A day after the story broke, Theatre Baton Rouge leadership announced that President Beth Bordelon, and Vice President of Production Adrienne Thornton had resigned. Other board members had resigned as well.

While the changes to leadership were necessary, it’s clear that the financial situation was too much to bear.

This is a developing story that will be updated with new information as it becomes available.